A New Shipment of Drug Lords to the US Seeks to Knock out the Northeast Cartel

Happy New Year… but not for the Northeast Cartel. 2026 brings with it a threat to the criminal group that emerged from the ranks of Los Zetas, and this time the threat doesn’t come from its natural predators, such as the Gulf Cartel or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), but from the United States government.

On December 4, 2025, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and Mexican governments were finalizing the details of a third extradition of drug traffickers, after 55 kingpins imprisoned in Mexico were flown to the United States in two separate events last year.

When questioned about this at the morning press conference at the National Palace on December 8, President Claudia Sheinbaum said that this third extradition isn’t currently being considered by her administration… for now.

“That doesn’t mean it won’t happen later,” the president added, prolonging the suspense for the leaders of Mexican organized crime, who are wondering if they have outstanding accounts with the justice system administered by Donald Trump.

MILENIO learned through a source in the security cabinet that there is a preliminary third list of “extraditable” kingpins, but it will only be acted upon if it’s necessary to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. government.

This list includes three men and one woman whose extradition from the country would be a blow designed to cripple the Northeast Cartel, considered by Washington to be a terrorist organization and, therefore, a priority target.

“These are four people who are imprisoned but continue to operate from their cells in Mexico. If they are transferred to the United States, it would be a brutal blow, because they would be completely isolated. Without them, the group would lose its leadership and cohesion, which would unleash an internal war that would end the Northeast Cartel as we know it,” said the source consulted. 

A Couple of Leaders, the Likely “Delivery”

First on that list is Ricardo González Sauceda, alias El Ricky or El Mando Erre, who until his arrest in February of last year was the cartel’s regional boss in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila.

Due to his importance in northern Mexico, he was considered the number two figure in the criminal organization, second only to Juan Cisneros Treviño, the top leader of the Northeast Cartel, whose founding in 2015 aimed to revitalize Los Zetas, which were nearing their demise.

El Ricky was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s blacklist three months after his capture in May 2025, and is identified – along with the fugitive Miguel Ángel de Anda Ledezma, alias De Anda – as responsible for the armed attack in March 2022 against the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, which forced the closure of that office for almost a month. The White House wants to avenge the offense.

To punish him, the U.S. Department of Justice has opened proceedings against him in at least two federal courts, where El Ricky is accused of drug and arms trafficking.

If he is extradited to the United States, he will only have two options: reveal the secrets of his organization to weaken them in exchange for personal benefits, or face a trial that would lead to a life sentence.

The second is Fernando Martínez Adame, El Comandante Werko, accused by Mexican authorities of being the absolute leader of one of the most bloodthirsty armed wings of the Northeast Cartel: the Hell’s Troop, known for forcibly recruiting children and teenagers to use them as hitmen.

The Hell’s Troop gained international notoriety for a photograph that went viral in August 2019: one of its members lay in the back seat of a truck used to ambush soldiers. Decapitated, but not by a bladed weapon, but by a long-range shot from a high-powered rifle. The victim was called Juanito Pistolas and was only 16 years old.

Juanito Pistolas’ recruiter and superior was El Comandante Werko, who was arrested in August 2021 after a double raid on safe houses in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. His arrest was instigated by the U.S. government, after it became known that the hitman boss had ordered a series of attacks against Border Patrol agents due to several drug seizures during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Isolating these two leaders of the Northeast Cartel would effectively suspend their orders. If that happens, their allies will leave. And so will the protection of mid-level commanders. That chaos is perfect; it’s what we aim for in strategic operations,” the official says.

Spies and a former police officer also in the crosshairs

A third individual extradited to the United States is Martín Rodríguez Barbosa, “El Cadete,” who was arrested in September 2021, accused of using his knowledge as a former state police officer to provide protection to the Treviño family, leaders of Los Zetas until their near extinction and later founders of the Northeast Cartel.

But El Cadete’s functions went beyond those of a simple security chief. In reality, he was the head of a clandestine group known as Los Catas, which acted as an intelligence cell. The cartel’s secret group of spies.

They monitored businessmen, had infiltrators in local media, conducted physical surveillance of police officers, intercepted private communications of military personnel, and threatened citizens who posted any negative information about the cartel on social media.

With the data collected, they eliminated rivals, murdered traitors, carried out kidnappings, or calculated extortion fees. And they could anticipate any operation against them.

At the time of his arrest, El Cadete was worth a 2 million peso reward offered by the Tamaulipas government, but his value also extended beyond the Rio Grande: the U.S. government accuses him of orchestrating kidnappings of U.S. citizens and drug trafficking through a front transportation company.

The fourth name on the list – the only woman – is Edén Guadalupe Villarreal Gómez, “La Teniente,” another former police officer who is a target of interest for the administration of President Donald Trump.

Like El Cadete, this woman is accused of being a serial kidnapper of U.S. citizens, controlling the shipment of drugs north of the Rio Grande, and financing clandestine groups in the United States. With an extra cardinal sin: bribing agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her departure from Mexico would, as a side effect, relieve the pressure on the head of government, Clara Brugada, whose administration is suffering from the power wielded by “La Teniente”: she is accused of violently controlling daily life in the Santa Martha Acatitla women’s prison in Iztapalapa.

Bloodbath of Cartel Leaders Sent to the US

To date, the Northeast Cartel has lost only one leader in the extraditions of cartel bosses that the Mexican government has sent to the United States as a gesture of binational cooperation.

This is Carlos Alberto Monsiváis Treviño, “La Bola,” leader of the Northeast Cartel in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, who was sent to the United States during the first extradition of high-ranking criminal leaders on Thursday, February 27, 2025, in the same group that included Rafael Caro Quintero, “El Narco de Narcos,” and Vicente Carrillo, “El Viceroy,” among others.

Like all the leaders of the Northeast Cartel, La Bola was an important member of Los Zetas, who have lost nine leaders in the two international transfers: first, Z13, Z40, Z42, Z100, El Rama, El Alfa Metro, and El Chicles; then, in the transfer on August 12, 2025, El Cachetes and El Mostachón said goodbye to Mexico.

On the night of January 11, the U.S. State Department reported that its head, Marco Rubio, spoke by phone with Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente about the “need for concrete actions” to dismantle criminal networks in Mexico.

An hour and a half later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) confirmed that the conversation took place at the instruction of President Claudia Sheinbaum as a follow-up to the Border Security and Law Enforcement Cooperation Program, under the 

Source: Milenio